Mastodon Feed: Posts

Reblogged by cstanhope@social.coop ("Your friendly 'net denizen"):

M0CUV@mastodon.radio ("Matt Gumbley") wrote:

MTTIHC: Mean Time To “I Hate Computers”, a wellbeing metric used by technology professionals in order to see whether their daily frustration with computers is becoming problematic. Measured in seconds since the start of computer use, until the arising of the feeling that you should hurl the damned thing into the sea, and go and walk in the woods instead. Can also be applied to any modern technology, not just computers.

cstanhope@social.coop ("Your friendly 'net denizen") wrote:

Instead of #thinktober I appear to be having a #thonktober.

cstanhope@social.coop ("Your friendly 'net denizen") wrote:

Instead of endless arguments about code licenses, we should just stop making software useful to others. :thonking:

Reblogged by cstanhope@social.coop ("Your friendly 'net denizen"):

freakazoid@retro.social ("Charles against genocide") wrote:

Challenger, Columbia, and Therac-25 should be required reading for basically everyone.

Beyond the actual circumstances surrounding the Challenger explosion and the ensuing coverup, I strongly recommend Richard Feynman's "Personal Observations on Reliability of Shuttle" which talks about why unsafety was baked into the Shuttle from the very start.

https://www.nasa.gov/history/rogersrep/v2appf.htm

bcantrill ("Bryan Cantrill") wrote:

We have the @oxidecomputer team in town this week, so no Oxide and Friends today -- but @ahl and I will be back next week with our annual Books in the Box episode; check out the past Books in the Box episodes, and join us next week! https://discord.gg/QrcKGTTPrF?event=1297992461234212906

Reblogged by slightlyoff@toot.cafe ("Alex Russell"):

stephaniewalter@front-end.social ("Stefangny Waltergheist") wrote:

Remember the first time you created that index.html, opened in the browser, and it felt like magic?
@bw wrote a free online ebook and I love the promise:
“I feel strongly that anyone should be able to make a website with HTML if they want. This book will teach you how to do just that. It doesn’t require any previous experience making websites or coding. I will cover everything you need to know to get started in an approachable and friendly way.”

https://htmlforpeople.com/

Attachments:

• Screenshot of the ebook introduction with a pastel nicely illustrated banner with the title HTML for people, and a cute smiling robot (remote)

cstanhope@social.coop ("Your friendly 'net denizen") wrote:

Gonna go make all my encrypted stuff super secure by using the last two largest known Mersenne primes for my public key... :thonking:

Reblogged by slightlyoff@toot.cafe ("Alex Russell"):

vwbusguy@mastodon.online ("Scott Williams 🐧") wrote:

When you meet people that can type out `openssl` commands from sheer memory, be kind to them, because they've been through a few things.

Reblogged by slightlyoff@toot.cafe ("Alex Russell"):

verge ("The Verge") wrote:

News Corp sues Perplexity for ripping off WSJ and New York Post https://www.theverge.com/2024/10/21/24275924/news-corp-wall-street-journal-perplexity-lawsuit-copyright-infringement

Reblogged by slightlyoff@toot.cafe ("Alex Russell"):

andybaio@xoxo.zone ("Andy Baio") wrote:

Nilay Patel interviewed Intuit's CEO for the Decoder podcast, obviously asking about their long history of lobbying against free tax filing. Incredibly, Intuit's chief comms officer demanded Nilay delete that entire section of the podcast. The headline writes itself. https://www.theverge.com/2024/10/21/24273820/intuit-ceo-sasan-goodarzi-turbotax-irs-quickbooks-ai-software-decoder-interview

collinsworth@hachyderm.io ("Josh Collinsworth") wrote:

Overheard a poll worker say if early voting continues at the current rate, everyone in the county will have already voted by election day. Seems positive.

Reblogged by cstanhope@social.coop ("Your friendly 'net denizen"):

robinhouston@mathstodon.xyz wrote:

The cat's out of the bag: I can relax now. https://www.mersenne.org/

Reblogged by cstanhope@social.coop ("Your friendly 'net denizen"):

EmilySchnall@mastodon.art ("Emily Schnall✨Commissions Open") wrote:

Day 196: The boundary between my boy and the environment is blurring. It’s starting to actually feel like I’m giving him back to the world 🧵

Attachments:

• A very decayed sculpture of an allosaurus is propped up against a tree. It is mottled, greens and grays, blending into the surrounding leaves (remote)

slightlyoff@toot.cafe ("Alex Russell") wrote:

Shorter version of my competitive analysis of why web performance matters [1]:

Platforms are competitions. Pick a side.

[1]: https://toot.cafe/@slightlyoff/113346554454603327

slightlyoff@toot.cafe ("Alex Russell") wrote:

My primary motivation is that I want the web to win.

What does that mean? Concretely, that means that I want folks to be able to accomplish most of their daily tasks on the web. A reasonable diagnostic metric is time spent as a percentage of time on device. JTBD fraction would be the natural leading metric, but it's wicked hard to track.

This phrasing -- fraction of time, rather than total time -- has the benefit of not being thirsty. It's also tracked by various parties.

Ok, but why?

slightlyoff@toot.cafe ("Alex Russell") wrote:

It's interesting how thin a skin the React crowd has. They think I'm being deeply antagonistic when, in fact, I've been holding my fire (and the confidences of consulting counterparties) for ~8 years. This has only served to make things look *better* than they really are.

The damage I'm seeing isn't just in the public sector, or limited to exceptionally bad cases. It's now ecosystem-wide, and JS-first culture is very much to blame.

But why do I care? A short thread.

slightlyoff@toot.cafe ("Alex Russell") wrote:

It's interesting how thin a skin the React crowd has. They think I'm being deeply antagonistic when, in fact, I've been holding my fire (and the confidences of consulting counterparties) for ~8 years. This has only served to make things look *better* than they really are.

The damage I'm seeing isn't just in the public sector, or limited to exceptionally bad cases. It's now ecosystem-wide, and JS-first culture is very much to blame.

But why do I care? A short thread.

slightlyoff@toot.cafe ("Alex Russell") wrote:

My primary motivation is that I want the web to win.

What does that mean? Concretely, that means that I want folks to be able to accomplish most of their daily tasks on the web. A reasonable diagnostic metric is time spent as a percentage of time on device. JTBD fraction would be the natural leading metric, but it's wicked hard to track.

This phrasing -- fraction of time, rather than total time -- has the benefit of not being thirsty. It's also tracked by various parties.

Ok, but why?

cstanhope@social.coop ("Your friendly 'net denizen") wrote:

Some additional context:

https://qz.com/1023638/the-gulls-are-alright-how-a-lesbian-seagull-discovery-shook-up-1970s-conservatives

cstanhope@social.coop ("Your friendly 'net denizen") wrote:

So, Monday was starting out as Mondays do, but I was listening to this podcast:

https://www.theguardian.com/science/audio/2024/jul/11/lesbian-seagulls-and-gay-rams-the-endless-sexual-diversity-of-nature-podcast

And learned about the "Lesbian Seagull" song:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_uSGPmYmJc0

And it cheered me up a bit.

(Note: The song was on a Beavis and Butt-head movie soundtrack. I've always been repulsed by B&BH, so I have no idea if the original context was intended to be offensive. The song seems over-the-top sentimental, but otherwise inoffensive unless you're a bigot or something.)

jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein") wrote:

well good, a few cores are “only” at 80% now

jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein") wrote:

I have never seen all of my laptop cores go to over 95% at the same time & just stay there… clearly, this 5-yr-old Intel-chip machine is not up to the task of running GPT4All

;^{

collinsworth@hachyderm.io ("Josh Collinsworth") wrote:

Voted ✅

Judging by how many people were there (it's the third day of early voting in my county), it's a popular thing to do.

pzmyers@octodon.social ("pzmyers 🦑") wrote:

If he was my server, I wouldn't trust the food.

https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2024/10/21/living-the-dream-i-think-he-should-do-it-full-time/

Attachments:

• Trump & his french fries (remote)

fromjason ("fromjason.xyz ❤️ 💻") wrote:

*Double date 2035*

Firt couple: we met after the great blue orb that follows all sent an email to my brain chip explaining Shelly is the least likely to murder me with a slave robot

Second couple: aw that's sweet listen the reason we invited you here is because we like your vibe and-

pzmyers@octodon.social ("pzmyers 🦑") wrote:

The WaPo publishes an opinion piece on the power of prayer that includes a link to an article in the scientific literature to prop up its point.

It doesn't. Surprise.

https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2024/10/21/fluff-and-nonsense/

Attachments:

• Science is not going to change its commitment to the truth. We can only hope religion changes its commitment to nonsense. - Victor J. Stenger (remote)

Reblogged by cstanhope@social.coop ("Your friendly 'net denizen"):

Algot@mastodon.art wrote:

Monday follows Sunday.
It's a weekly thing, they say.
One is often a fun day.
The other...I'd rather not say.

#SmallPoems

Reblogged by cstanhope@social.coop ("Your friendly 'net denizen"):

spacehobo@teh.entar.net ("Space Hobo") wrote:

Make reader mode the default #CSS in all browsers send toot

Reblogged by slightlyoff@toot.cafe ("Alex Russell"):

paddyduke ("The Paddy Dook") wrote:

No, I don't want tracking cookies.

No, I don't want to subscribe to your newsletter.

No, I don't want a special offer if I check out in the next 10 minutes.

No, I don't want to sign in with Google.

No, I don't want to watch an unrelated video on top of the article I'm trying to access.

No, I don't want a "better experience" in your app.

No, I don't want to sign in to read the article.

No, I don't want to read "more like this".

No, I don't want to fill in a survey before I go.

Mastodon wrote:

We're now shipping the #Plushtodon to Norway and Switzerland! Only 173 left in Europe. News on the US and other regions to come soon!

https://shop.joinmastodon.org/products/mastodon-plushie

Attachments:

• A stuffed Mastodon toy sitting in front of a restaurant table.